Household Happenings

I was supposed to do this post for yesterday, for Friday "Lovings" but fell asleep last night before I could even start writing...

So now the children are in bed {all before 8pm - yesss} but oh me oh my what a mission.

Tonight I totally felt like I was going to lose the plot with the boys.

Luca, poor wee guy, has got a tummy bug and has been destroying the toilet all day.

I hate dealing with poos in general so I was not at all pleased to be dealing with his explosiveness...

Beni, now that he is in a Big Boy Bed seems to think it's a game to be put to bed, told very firmly to stay there and then for him to get out of bed, walk right up to us and wait for us to growl at him.

Then he runs off squealing with delight as we pursue him back to his bed *exasperated sigh*

It's just felt like a real battle tonight and probably heightened by the fact I am so tired and eager for them to all be in bed asleep... and my boobs are leaking everywhere because Max seems to be not-so-interested in them anymore. Hmph.

But all is now quiet, we have a nice chilled glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Austin has just confirmed that, yes indeed, we have three boys out for the count. Phew!

Anyway... I wanted to share some of the Happenings in our Household this week.

:::

Luca is cracking us up with some of the things he's been saying lately.

Quite randomly the other day while eating pasta for dinner he says "Mamma, when you spew up your pasta on yourself you will get told off."

"...ah, what was that?" I replied, not quite sure I was hearing correctly.

"When you spill your pasta on the floor you give a bad, bad message."

"Right..." What are they teaching him at school??...

Random indeed.

We awoke this morning to Luca coming into our room and declaring "We will go to the shop and we will buy a phone for me so I can play Angry Birds." Oh. dear.

Have you ever played the mobile phone app of Angry Birds? If not, don't do it!!

It's terribly addictive.

But Luca has become a true genius at it.

He constantly gets three stars (the highest) and smashes Austin's previous high scores out of the park.

Austin is constantly being humiliated and humbled by Luca's uncanny skills with this game.

We are in the middle of a heatwave.

In the middle of Autumn.

It's awesome!

All the boys are baring their torsos.

Like their father they love having their shirts off.

And I'm so fine with that.

Especially when they are as delicious as this.

Now I may be a little slow on the uptake.

I'm sure this is not a lightbulb idea for anyone other than me (!)

Austin and I, due to our extremely tight budget at the moment, have come up with a bi-weekly menu for our dinners during the week and weekends so that when we shop we are only shopping specifically for exact items and quantities needed according to our menu.

And I do believe it's working!

I'm quite excited about this because I am a lists and routine girl and this makes me very happy.

My days feel more manageable because I don't have to think "What shall we have for dinner?" or "What have we got in the cupboards that I can rustle a meal together with?"

I love having that already decided for me.

We like to get our groceries delivered.

This saves us much time and effort - online grocery shopping is from the Lord I tell you!

The funny thing is our boys get so excited about the fact that the 'Asda Man' is here.

They enthusiastically get right in there taking receipt of the bags of groceries handed to them at the door and take great delight in unpacking them and discovering the exciting things we have bought.

Loving the Brother Love.

I often walk into the room where Max is sleeping to find he's been 'gifted' some cars by his brothers.

You have to remember that cars are a commodity around here.

And they are not given away light-heartedly nor flippantly.

Can't believe this little man's on solids now - craziness!!

But he loves his food. Oh yes.

His eating and appreciating noises are really quite something.

I'm pleased to report I'm back out running.

For real.

Blisters on my feet and everything.

Check out these wicked sock marks. I thought I had suddenly got tanned legs but then realised it was just dust.

Loving children who can sleep anywhere.

Just give them their dummy and muslin cloth and together they work like an immediate sedative.

But this is what happens when the d&m are carelessly left lying around...

Proud big brother.

I'm loving watching the interaction between Luca and Max especially and watching the relationships between the three boys develop.

They are very proud and protective of their little guy Max.

...and he's pretty darn cute!

The multi-tasking Mamma.

Trying to convince one child to eat while balancing another on her lap.

When you bake cookies make sure you reward yourself with one fresh out of the oven with a nice strong cup of coffee in your favourite mug.

Heaven on Earth.

Friday's treat was a white & dark chocolate chip cookie still hot from the oven (I actually burnt my mouth on it) with a coffee in my favourite mug I got in Helsinki, Finland.

As you do.

Maybe I have a foot fetish

but I just can't seem to get enough of these little chubba bubba feet.

And don't even get me started on the chunky thighs...!

Deliciousness.

Totally.

Check em out.

This little guy rocks my world.

Posted especially for the grandparents to have a cry over...

Happy ROCKtober everyone! X

:::

Linking up here

Long Weekend Love

Just living is not enough.  One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.  

~Hans Christian Anderson

This weekend I felt like I was able to stop and smell the roses.
Making the most of the hours of sunshine given, making the most of family time.

This weekend we had an extra day added to our weekend. The 'Summer Bank Holiday' for all of the UK. Nice.
So we as a family set about soaking up every hour of every day the best we could. And what better way to start out the loooooooooong weekend than with cupcakes?

Then onto blackberry picking again, gleaning the last of nature's goodness from the blackberry bushes before the winter chill sets in.

My Hunter-Gatherer husband. Tasty.

He takes his work seriously...

Spying the Goods.

Tasting the Goods.

Deciding whether the Goods are good...

Oh yeeeeeeaaaaah they're GOOD!

With purple-stained fingers and lips and with legs smarting from stinging nettle attacks, we meandered along, around the corner, over the stream, across the field and into the playground with the intention of wearing out a certain 3 year old boy.

When he fell asleep in the buggy on the walk home we knew our mission was accomplished, just in time for wine o'clock.

I have a sister also living in London who, among other things, is pretty flippin awesome.
She managed to stumble across a fruit and veggie stall at Borough Markets which sells... wait for it...
FEIJOA'S AND TAMARILLO'S!!

Oh. My. Gosh.
So excited. So very excited!
I spent a lot of my time just smelling them, closing my eyes and letting their strong, flavoursome fragrance take me back in time. Back to the feijoa tree at the back of Grandma and Grandad's place where I would spend a lot of my time sitting in it's branches armed with only a teaspoon, having my fill of the seemingly endless supply of feijoa's.
Heaven it was.
I was remembering Feijoa crumble; preserved feijoa's on weetbix for breakfast; feijoa's baked with sausages...... yes that's right. My dad 'experimented' with this for our dinner one time. Needless to say it was just that one time.

And tamarillo's? Well, they are something else. Never really liked them as a child but I grew to L.O.V.E. them! I have fond memories of an early 80's record we used to listen to where there was a song: "I'm a Tremulous Tamarillo, and I'm sleeping on my pillow, and I'm weeping like a willow, I'm a Tremulous Tamarillo!"
Great song. But it will get stuck in your head for, like, the rest of your life...

The next morning we were up early and heading to our favourite cafe in London for a quick, but necessary, coffee before church. Necessary not because church is boring (let me just clarify that!) but because coffee is necessary every day. That's just a fact of life as I know it.

The evening meal was made by Papa and Luca. Fresh pasta and leftover blackberry and apple pie.

There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh pasta. It's totally worth the time and effort (and mess) put in! AND you just have to put the simplest of ingredients with it to create a party in your mouth! We had it with pancetta, garlic and cherry tomatos. So yummy, especially because my son helped to make it.

Today was another excellent adventure in the English Countryside that I will have to tell you about in a separate post as there are so many cool photos and stories to tell, it really deserves a post all to itself.

I hope you all have had a super weekend and have been able to take some time in each day to stop and smell those beautiful roses that are created for your pleasure.

It's all about the dinosaur {continued}

On Saturday we celebrated Luca's 3rd birthday with a DINOSAUR PARTY!

7 of Luca's friends and a couple of handfuls of big people joined us at an indoor activity centre.
It was cool.
We liked it a lot.

Being a dinosaur-themed party of course there was the option to come dressed as a dinosaur.

And some people? Well, some people are awesome and just go all-out when it comes to dress-ups!

There is absolutely no hope for Luca to turn out normal when these are 2 of his most favourite people in the whole world...

Aunty Gretchie (my sister) made her costume. She absolutely amazes me! I just couldn't get enough of checking out her hand-made outfit (but I'm not sure if dinosaurs had red lipstick??)

Even Beni was joining in on the action and spent the afternoon charming the ladies with his {borrowed} dino headgear.

I loved it that the adults could sit around and drink wine and coffee while the kids were off playing somewhere within the complex and you generally didn't have to worry about what they were getting up to!

But after a while it all started to get a bit much for some. A certain Grumpy Old Dodgy Dinosaur soon got tired of being poked in his oversize belly by small smelly children.

Soon enough it was time for cake! With much difficulty the children were rounded up from the far corners of the complex to be topped up with ever more sugar from the Volcano Lolly-Lava Cake.

Cake, lollies and many E Numbers were devoured in 5 minutes flat (never mind that it took me all morning to decorate it!)
One child choked on a lolly and vomited cake+ onto the carpet.
What's a party without a bit of hurling huh?

And as the sugar-slump started to kick in...

... party packs were given out and everyone was sent merrily on their way, including us.

I almost cried when I realised I could just walk away and didn't have to do any of the cleaning up! Bliss.

It's all about the dinosaur

Last weekend this little boy turned 3.

But, seeing as about half the population of children in the world seem to have their birthdays in August, we weren't able to secure the day for his birthday party. Another more organised mother bet me to it... darnnit!

But we still had a family dinner.
With cake. But not just any ol' cake. We are talking scary DINOSAUR cake! RRRaaaaarrrrrr!!!

Probably the freakiest cake I've ever made - we felt very bad cutting him up and eating him, thinking he might come back to haunt us...

But most importantly the Birthday Boy was suitably impressed with his mamma's fine handiwork (whew!)

And so tomorrow is Luca's actual birthday party. It's a Dinosaur Theme (are you surprised?)
Unfortunately it's forecast for rain so I did well and pre-empted the weather and have arranged for the party to be held at Eddie Catz which is a big children's play area just down the road. It also has a large cafe space for the adults to chill-out in, drink coffee and eat cake. AND they serve wine! I am SO there!!

So the last minute extremely organised preparations were being done tonight.

Luca's dinosaur costume is brilliantly taking shape under the surprisingly skill-full hands of my one and only.

Who's a pretty flippin' awesome and amazing husband then huh?
And he's very masculine (just incase you thought he might be a bit soft because he's caught here sewing...)

The cakes are made and cooling, ready to be 'created' into a Dinosaur Spectacular in the morning. Can't wait to get making! I love this part of the process! (mostly because I get to taste-test the sweets as I decorate the cake)...

Yes there is a little part missing from the edge of the cake on the left... that's because I ate some... It literally jumped into my hand as I was gently guiding the cake from out of it's bowl...

The dinosaurs are ready to be slotted in between each layer of the 'Pass the Parcel'

The Party Packs are ready

A whole packet of peanut M&M's has been consumed.

We are ready to roll!

The thing I am looking forward to the most tomorrow is seeing my Big Boy 3 Year Old enjoying himself with his friends and people who love him. And for him to feel very special and cherished.
Because he is.